The taste and sound of the year, the culture of the year

In old Beijing, the traditional Spring Festival was very different from now. The Spring Festival contains a strong cultural flavor, because the ancient festival of the Spring Festival and the ancient city of Beijing, the two ancients together, blend with each other and complement each other. These two kinds of antiquity make this culture particularly rich and eye-catching, and it has become a very representative Beijing culture. If it is said that the culture of scholars, Xuannan and Hutong represent an aspect of Beijing culture, then this culture contained in the Spring Festival festival, with rich historical genes, national bloodlines and folk elements, can be called Nian culture.

Putting aside the boring explanation of theory, if I want to use the image to say, the culture of the year is first reflected in the taste of the year and the sound of the year.

In my opinion, the taste of nian is the taste of nian culture, and only by chewing out this taste can we taste the taste of Nian culture. The taste of the new year begins from the eighth day of the first lunar month, and there is a saying in old Beijing, which is called entering the Lap Eight to count the New Year. Lapa is associated with Lapa Porridge, this kind of extremely rich in agricultural era characteristics of Lapa Porridge, there are many legends, one of which is that when it comes to the end of the year, the poor family has no grain, and all the grains such as all kinds of rice beans are poured out and boiled in a pot of chowder porridge. This kind of porridge that is happy in bitterness has evolved into today's colorful eight treasure porridge. The taste in the Eight Treasures Porridge is not something that everyone can taste today when they are young.

Eight treasures, is corresponding to the five tastes, one of the five tastes is bitter, in the era of extreme material scarcity, the year is called the year pass, the so-called "off", is difficult to pass, need to boil, to be able to survive, boiling, is to bite the meaning. The word "boiling" in boiling eight porridge means here. It's almost the New Year, and don't forget the poor, which we now call vulnerable groups. Therefore, even today, on the day of Lapa Ba, it is still a tradition in Beijing to boil a large pot of Lapa Porridge in the temple to give alms to the poor. The first taste of the year is the taste of Laba porridge, which is sweet and bitter, or only the five tastes are complete, and the eight treasures can be together.

The taste of the year reaches a peak on the twentieth day of the waxing moon, and then gradually reaches a climax. From the 23rd day of the Waxing Moon, eating sugar melon festival stove, to Chinese New Year's Eve dumplings to make Chinese New Year's Eve rice, as the weather gradually warms, the taste of the year becomes more and more intense. This smell, soaked in the characteristics of the farming era, emanates from food. After all, these smells come from the fields. From the noodles for steaming steamed buns with red dots in advance, to the meat in the dumplings, to the dates and rice for steaming rice cakes, which one didn't come from? Such a taste, so that the four seasons that reverberate in the land, gather together, become the taste of the new year, fluttering freely in the New Year's day, impacting the tip of our nose and the tip of our tongue. This is the rich and enduring taste of the year that can be chewed and savored. Every taste has a cause, the dragon vein of history is connected on the top, and the root system of the folk is intertwined. Unlike now, the Big New Year's Eve is only the Spring Festival Gala of Chinese New Year's Eve Night CCTV, Zhao Benshan does not appear, but also has to wait until a comedy star appears, everyone haha a happy, equal to the end of the fireworks, the year is basically over.

The sound of the New Year is also extremely important for the Spring Festival. New Year, pay attention to the lively, hot, the sound of the Year, in fact, is the voice of people bursting out from the bottom of their hearts. The old year has passed, whether it is satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and when the new year comes, we must shout out the joy or resentment and expectation in our hearts. The meaning of the annual sacrifice and worship is expressed here. Unlike Western prayers, we must kneel under the idol or priest, meditate in our hearts, or murmur in our mouths, but we must shout out loud, and even use external forces to make the sound earth-shattering and deafening to the gods. I think this is related to the fact that our country has been in an agrarian society for a long time, our gods are more secular, and our hearts and eyes are good, but because we are too old, our eyes and ears are not so good, and we need to move and move to make them bigger.

The sound of the year should start from the twenty-third day of the waxing moon to sacrifice the king of the stove, paying attention to the drumming, drumming and banging, indicating the footsteps of the new year. At that time, it was called "Wax Drum", also known as "Nian Drum", old Beijing used to have a lap drum or Nian Drum, called Taiping Drum, "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" said that it is "iron for the circle, wood for the handle, handle for the iron ring, the circle with skin", but unfortunately has been lost. The sound of the drum is the same as the meaning of striking the bell at the Dazhong Temple or Tanzhu Temple at twelve o'clock in the Chinese New Year's Eve night, which is a kind of reverence and joy for the sound of the year, and an externalization and materialization of God with equal worldliness.

Of course, the sound of the year, the most vivid performance, in the Chinese New Year's Eve night, the sound of firecrackers rises and falls, all night long, fire trees and honeysuckle, the sound shocks the world. Its original meaning is to drive away ghosts, but later it is already cathartic than the original intention, the form has become the content, and the cheerful and lively sound of the year must rely on it to embody. For several years in Beijing, fireworks and firecrackers were banned in urban areas, and some people once stepped on balloons (called "happy balls") to replace firecrackers, thinking that they all made sounds anyway, but they did not know that the sound was no longer the sound of the year, but it was just a fake of the sound of the year.

For firecrackers, it is very exquisite, firecrackers and firecrackers, in fact, there is a difference, the sound of the cannon, it is said that the earliest cannon is called "Ma Leizi", very rough appearance, single sound, but very loud. When I was a child, I watched others let this guy go, and children respected it. More evolved than it, it is also very loud, called "two kicks", double sound, a sound on the ground, flying to the air to ring a second sound. The bold, hold it in your hand, and the timid one, put it on the ground. Watching them fly into the sky with their long tails of fire, waiting for the second sound of the explosion, was very enjoyable. There are also several ones that fly into the sky, called "jumping cannons". Smaller than the appearance and sound of "Ma Leizi", "Two Kicks", and "Jumping Cannon", it is called a whip. Inch whip, also known as small whip, are hung hundreds of heads, thousands of heads, or even tens of thousands, generally hanging on a long bamboo pole, lighting a small whip of the twister, crackling, waiting to listen to it, birds in the forest, ringing endlessly, the ground is full of red confetti, like a spring flower blooming all over the place.

Smaller than the small whip, it is considered rat. The name is a bit indecent, but it is very graphic, gray particles, really like rat. It was not loud, and after it was ignited, it rolled a few times on the ground, squeaked out a few blue sparks, and jumped into mid-air, like a firefly, and there was no shadow. It was extinct very early, and I let it go when I was a child, and the generation younger than me probably listened to it as far away as The Tempo past. Firecrackers and cannons, so that adults and children, rich and poor, have equal opportunities; let the voice of the year, there are weak and strong, with democratic repercussions. Just like the big dog barks, the little dog barks, and the sound of the year is the noise of the crowd and the joy of the whole people.

The end of the sound of the year is usually at the temple fair a few days after the Spring Festival, such as the windmills and empty bamboo sold on the factory or baiyun temple. The sound of windmills and empty bamboo facing the spring breeze of the learned willows is more pleasant, delicate and gentler than firecrackers. The year is about to end, and it seems affectionate and reluctant to leave people.

The loudest remaining sound of the year is firecrackers. In fact, the sound of the year is much richer, the passage of the years, the change of the times, so that the voice of the year has disappeared a lot helplessly.

The disappearance of these two voices is the most regrettable to me. First, the big Chinese New Year's Eve, after eating Chinese New Year's Eve meal, before setting off firecrackers, there was such a program in old Beijing, that is, to put the purchased dried straw or sesame stalks in the yard, let the children run to the top to step on it, and step on the pole as much as possible, the more broken the more auspicious; the louder the better, the louder the more auspicious. This program, known as "Stepping on the Age", is to step on the unsatisfactory past year and not bring it into the new year that is coming. The sound of "stepping on the age" that creaks all over the yard is a prelude to the sound of firecrackers that are about to sound. Unfortunately, such a chic sound of "stepping on the age" with a strong folk flavor has now become a masterpiece as the courtyard and the farmland around the city are gradually replaced by high-rise buildings.

Another sound, disappeared strangely. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, pay attention to receiving gods to worship the New Year, before, on this day, selling large and small goldfish, they would pick up carts and shout around along the streets and alleys, so that adults and children could buy one or two to carry home, calling it "auspicious celebration and more than enough". In Lao She's drama "Longsugou", there is also the echo of the sound of selling small goldfish, which was the early days of Beijing's liberation. Nowadays, there are still small goldfish for sale, but the sound of shouting and selling small goldfish along the street can only be heard on the stage. The sound of the year, with only firecrackers left, became somewhat monotonous.

New Year, how can there be no taste and sound of the New Year? If you think about it carefully, if you simplify, the taste of the new year is more from the new year's eating; the sound of the new year is more reflected in the new year's play. If you think about it carefully, you will appreciate that, in fact, through the form of the New Year, the former reflects people's pursuit of materials, and the latter reflects people's yearning for the spirit. The taste of the year, if it is realistic; the sound of the year, is romantic. The combination of the two is the true meaning of nian culture.

◎ This article was originally published in the "Digest Newspaper" (author Xiao Fuxing), the source network, the copyright of the picture and text belongs to the original author, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.